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1. Friedrich List viewed the American system as an example of how government support, industry, and science can work together to drive national innovation and growth.

2.List’s ideas laid the foundation for modern theories of national innovation systems, where success depends on cooperation between the state, business, and education

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List’s “normal nation” is a country with balanced agriculture, industry, and trade that can support itself without foreign help. He saw Germany’s industrial growth through the Zollverein as an example of becoming a normal, independent nation.

List believed temperate-zone countries like Europe, the U.S., and Japan were best for industry and progress, while tropical regions would stay agricultural. This view later shaped Japan’s idea that it should lead Asia’s modernization.

List said only large, united states could industrialize fully. Smaller nations should join bigger systems. Japan used this idea in the 1930s to justify forming the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which Kobayashi later criticized as imperialism.

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The European crisis has non-financial roots, it comes from deindustrialization and structural divergence, not only from debt or banking failures

Friedrich List’s theory of productive forces explains that real wealth depends on industry, technology, and learning capacity

EU integration ignored these principles and followed neoclassical free-market logic, assuming all sectors were equal

The result was asymmetrical integration, strong countries (Germany, Scandinavia) advanced, while weaker ones (Southern and Eastern Europe) lost productive capacity

Industrial and innovation policies are essential for balanced growth; finance alone cannot sustain prosperity

The EU’s focus on fiscal rules replaced the Listian focus on production and development

The crisis proves that without productive forces, there is no stable economy or democracy

Reinert and Kattel call for a return to List’s principles,building industry, education, and technology before full liberalization

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9 chapter "Two early views on railway regulation"

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9 chapter "Two early views on railway regulation"

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List and Hansemann complemented each other: one emphasized national development, the other emphasized operational efficiency. Both thinkers anticipated problems such as tariffs, monopolies, and externalities long before the emergence of formal regulation theory.

List recognized the macroeconomic importance of infrastructure, while Hansemann understood how institutional mechanisms such as auctions could increase efficiency.

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1. The nation-state is an active economic agent

2. Government must protect “infant industries” and coordinate national economic systems

3. Productive power - real wealth lies in the ability to produce and innovate - through education, technology, and industry. It’s dynamic: a nation’s future strength depends on what it can create, not just what it trades today

4. A nation must first build its strength before it opens itself completely to world competition

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List’s relationship with France was complex and full of contradictions.

He admired France for its Revolutionary ideals, liberalism, and Enlightenment thought, but also criticised its centralism and authoritarian politics.

Throughout his life, France remained a key influence in shaping his political and economic ideas.

However, during his exile in the United States, List’s thinking changed significantly.

There he witnessed a young nation focused on industrial growth, education, and infrastructure, which convinced him that economic strength must be built before embracing global free trade.

This experience helped him formulate his famous idea of “productive forces”, which later became the foundation of his “National System of Political Economy.”

In his later years, due to political conflicts like the Rhine crisis, List lost trust in France and turned his hopes toward Germany’s own national development.

Still, his dream of Franco-German cooperation foreshadowed modern European integration.

List was not just a nationalist; he was a pragmatic European visionary who believed that economic development and cooperation were the true paths to peace and progress.

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In my opinion, Friedrich List ideas is a basic for successful economic policy, because if country won’t develop their internal strengthening of the country, they will not be able to compete with more developed countries, for example his ideas became the basis for Latin America in the 20 century, because they tried to catch up with industrial nations by developing their own production. The main ideas:

1. Friedrich opposed the cosmopolitan economic of Adam Smith

2. “Educational tarrifs”

3. The nation is the main unit of economic progress

4. “Productive forces”

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7 chapter "Friedrich List’s ‘economics of education’"

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7 chapter "Friedrich List’s ‘economics of education’"

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Friedrich List believed that a nation becomes strong not just through wealth or free trade, but by developing its productive powers — education, skills, technology, and strong institutions. He saw education as a national investment that creates human capital, supports industry, and drives long-term economic growth. List argued that the state must guide this process by building schools, encouraging innovation, protecting young industries, and coordinating different sectors. His ideas anticipated modern concepts like human capital theory, national innovation systems, and the close link between education and industrial progress.

I believe List understood early on that progress comes from developing people, not only from markets.

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1. Friedrich List’s ideas are still useful today

2. The author connects List’s theory to modern politics, especially Donald Trump’s “America First” policy, which used similar protectionist ideas.

3. It helps us understand how old economic theories still influence today’s world.

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First, develop your own economy, then move on to free trade

Shevchuk Oleksandra